Frank Ordonez / The Post-StandardSyracuse fans get a reminder to cheer during last season's game against Northwestern at the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Brilliant, he’s never been. But Yogi Berra has been blessed with his share of uncomplicated wisdom, and he unveiled some of it a long time ago when he was asked about attendance. About waning attendance.

“If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark,” Yogi opined, “nobody’s gonna stop ’em.”

Berra’s game, of course, was baseball. His sage words, though, would spill into other sports, tumble across the decades and, as luck would have it, land in our town where a whole lot of folks are making the man look like Voltaire.

It’s like this: In Syracuse University, we have a Division I-A football program, and the only BCS club in the entire state, right here in this city. Its ancestors once captured the national championship (during the Eisenhower administration, but still). And more recently, during a happy 15-year span ending in 2001, it won at least nine times in eight different seasons.

And yet, Yogi Berra’s observation wafts because, of late, nobody’s really stopped Central New York fans from not coming out to the Carrier Dome, which doesn’t seat as many as 50,000 souls. And that tepid behavior has enhanced football matters in these parts not at all.

Sure, this is getting to be a fairly old story. But unless it changes — unless the Dome is returned to its once-rollicking days when a gathering of 40,000 inspired embarrassment rather than cartwheels — that story will remain as significant as any other around here.

“I don’t think you need to win to have a full Dome,” said Scott Sidwell, SU’s Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director, whose main charge is to plant fannies in the pews. “And I don’t think you need a full Dome to win. What you need to do is put everything together if you want to get back to where things used to be. And that’s having a Dome that’s full.”

You remember, certainly, those cause-and-effect salad days between 1988-99 when the average annual per-game Dome attendance exceeded 45,000 10 times in 12 years and the Orange went 100-41-3 (including 50-18-2 at home). And, too, you also remember these last six seasons — five of which produced average annual per-game Dome gatherings between 33,474 and 39,043 — and the resultant Syracuse record of 20-51 (including 15-23 at home).

Which is the chicken and which is the egg? It remains the eternal conundrum. But as you ponder that riddle, know that Sidwell believes in you even if you’re not quite sure that you believe in his Orange.

“This community is ready for us to fight and to win,” he said. “That’s our theme this year: The Orange Empire Fights Back. That’s what we’re doing. We’re getting ourselves in a position to get back into bowls and get back to winning at the highest level. It’s a reality and it’s not far away. We’re seeing it happen before our eyes.

“We saw it a couple of times last year. We saw people who were all about: ‘We want to come back. We want to make the Dome a significant home-field advantage.’ Everybody who’s been in the Dome knows how exciting it can be and how loud it can be. I have every faith in the world that it’s going to happen. The only thing for us now is to go do it.”

As a way of moving that boulder, SU has season-ticket plans that start at a remarkable $100 (total, for all six home contests) . . . a three-game “Third-Down Package” . . . Family Packs . . . group discount rates . . . youth prices . . . senior-citizen enticements. The works.

A year ago, during Doug Marrone’s maiden voyage, the Orange per-game home attendance jumped by 5,569 — from a 29-season Dome low of 33,474 (in Greg Robinson’s farewell trudge) to a mediocre 39,043. This time around, and cognizant of the fact that impressionable recruits will periodically be in the building, Sidwell is aiming at another bump of 5,000 or so.

That would push SU to only 44,000 and change . . . or to about 40 percent of what the likes of Michigan and Penn State will regularly draw on Saturday afternoons. But the Orange would be creeping back, as it needs to.

“We have to control what we can control,” Sidwell declared. “Are there things on game day beyond the blocking and tackling that fans can enjoy? Is it affordable? Are the people treated right? Are the concession stands stocked with the right products?

“We try to control those things because once the ball is kicked off, there’s no control of any of it. I mean, nobody knows what’s going to happen after that. And that’s the excitement. That’s why the fans come. People want to feel part of something. They come because they want to contribute to help the team win. When the Dome starts to get full . . . I mean, you can feel it.”

There is, of course, reason for those counters of beans and keisters to hope. Especially now, before Labor Day, as folks continue to mull the mostly glowing (and predictable) preseason reviews of Marrone’s squad.

The home opener, against Maine on Sept. 18, has its allure as all home openers do. The following week, our neighbors from Colgate will come to the Dome with both its followers and the promise of helping the Orange to a potential out-of-the-gate record of 3-1. The third home affair is against Pittsburgh, likely a Top 15 outfit, on Homecoming Day/Reunion Weekend. The fourth could/should yield a conquest of Louisville. The fifth and sixth, on both sides of Thanksgiving and each with potential bowl ramifications, will be against pesky Connecticut and old friend/ancient nemesis Boston College.

So, there is a lot for SU to sell here. And there is more than enough for the fan base to buy. And now . . . we wait and see.

“We feel good about the buzz in the community,” said Sidwell. “We feel good about the excitement that’s building this season. We think people are ready to get on board again. It’s the second year of Doug Marrone, and the fans have seen what he’s been able to do. We have to get it done, man. We’re fired up. We’re ready to go.”

And, the belief is, nobody’s gonna stop’em.

(Bud Poliquin's columns, his "To The Point" observations and his freshly-written on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. His work can also be regularly found on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, he can be heard, Mondays through Fridays (10 a.m.-12 noon), on the "But & the Manchild" sports-talk radio show on The Score 1260-AM. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com)